My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE A. FOGELSANGER, a substantial farmer and successful dairyman of Southampton township, Cumberland county, and salesman for the McCormick & Hammond Machine Company, of Chicago, was born Aug. 26, 1861, in Southampton township, the second son of Rev. John R. and Elvilah (Reigle) Fogelsanger.

Rev. John R. Fogelsanger was born Aug. 8, 1825, on the old Fogelsanger homestead, in Franklin county, where he lived until 1874, when he removed to Cumberland county, and settled on a farm formerly owned by his uncle, Jacob Fogelsanger, in Hopewell township. His wife, Elvilah Reigle, was born Aug. 7, 1834, near Shippensburg, daughter of John Reigle, of German ancestry, and she died April 1, 1902. Rev. Fogelsanger and wife had the following children: Jacob C.; Emma, wife of William J. Main, of Shippensburg; George A.; Charles E., farmer on the old homestead; David R., clerk for the Geyser Manufacturing Company, of Waynesboro; Annie, wife of Elmer Mowery, proprietor of a book store at Shippensburg; Ella E., wife of John R. Pilgrim, of Southampton; and Clara J., at home.

George A. Fogelsanger was reared on the home farm, and attended the local schools until prepared for the Cumberland Valley State Normal School, where he prosecuted his studies for eighteen months. The succeeding six months he spent at Juniata College at Huntingdon, Pa., and then returned to the home farm, where he remained until his marriage, when he settled on his present farm, which has been known for many years, as the old Jacob Fogelsanger farm. This consists of seventy acres, on which our subject’s father built the commodious barn in 1882. It is well improved with excellent buildings of all kinds, and is adapted to the carrying on of an extensive dairy. Mr. Fogelsanger has made a scientific study of this business, and understands all its practical details. He is general manager and shipper at Shippensburg, for the firm of Alpha Davis, of Baltimore, Maryland.

On October 11, 1883, Mr. Fogelsanger married Miss Dessie Baker, of Cumberland county, a daughter of David R. and Elizabeth (Christlieb) Baker, and they are the parents of six children: Raymond G., Daisy M., Ella C., Berna M., Nora Belle and Cora E. Both he and his wife are valued members of the German Baptist Church. Politically, Mr. Fogelsanger is a Republican, and has been very actively engaged in political matters in this locality, his usefulness to his party being shown in his election for two years as a member of the Republican central committee, and he has also served as tax collector. For the past nine years he has been a member of the I. O. O. F., has passed all the chairs, is past grand master of the lodge in Pennsylvania, and was a delegate to the Grand Lodge of the State. He is one of the enterprising, intelligent men who are bound to push to the front both in business and politics, full of life and energy, a type of the best class of American citizen.